MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON
TUESDAY, APRIL 25. 1981
Matter of Fact By Joseph Alsop
(c) New York Herald Tribune Syndicate
Editor's note: Joseph Al
sop is on a brief vacation.
During his absence his
brother Stewart will write
the Alsop column.
By STEWART ALSOP
IF you strike at a king
Washington-Sometimes it is
useful to state the obvious.
After the events of the last
tragic week, and especially
after what President Kennedy
said in his speech to the edit
ors, Fidel Castro cannot indef
initely be permitted to sur
vive in triumph. The prestige
and even the honor of the
United States are now ob
viously and wholly committed
to Castro's ultimate downfall.
There is hardly anybody in
the higher reaches of the Ken
nedy Administration who does
not agree that this commit
. ment to Castro's destruction
now in fact exists. And yet
President Kennedy and his ad
visors certainly did not plan
. the commitment. On the con
trary, the President's key de
cisions in regard to theCuban
operation were specifically
designed to avoid such a com
mitment. There were two key deci
sions made by the President
after he decided to give the
operation a green light. The
plan for the operation which
the President inherited from
President Eisenhower involv
ed the use of American arm
ed force-for example, naval
air power-if necessary to as
sure the success of the opera
tion. President Kennedy's
first key decision was to rule
out the use of anyAmericari
forces whatever, under any
conditions whatever. His sec
ond key decision was to an
nounce the first decision, just
as the operation began.
THE public announcement
that American forces would
under no circumstances be in
volved was reiterated twice
by the President himself and
four times With even more
emphasis by Secretary of
State Dean Rusk. The an
nouncement obviously great
ly reduced the likelihood of
: a general uprising in Cuba,
which was the main purpose
of the Cuban operation. It
also quite unnecessarily tied
the President's hands in ad
vance. After the operation began
to go bad, at an all day meet
ing at the White House on
Wednesday, certain of the
President's military and civil
ian advisors favored active
American intervention. They
argued that the operation sim
ply could not be allowed to
fail, if only because the Unit
ed Stales would in that event
become in the eyes of the
world the most papery of
paper tigers. The President
might well have favored this
course himself, if he had not
so publicly tied his own hands
in advance. Why did he do so?
This reporter has tried hard
to find the answer to that
question, and must confess a
partial failure. The fact is that
there has been something odd
ly uncharacteristic about the
President's role in the Cuban
affair. To be sure, since the
operation failed, his actions
have been wholly characteris
tic of the man-he has taken
the whole responsibility for
the failure on himself and he
has passed the word down the
line that there will be no re
criminations and no scape
goat hunt. The uncharacteris
tic phase came earlier.
Throughout his career - as
for example in his decision to
enter the" key Wisconsin and
West Virginia primaries last
year - Kennedy has always
looked before he leaped. He
had looked very hard, care
fully weighing every con
ceivable factor likely to af
fect the outcome. And then
he has leaped very hard, us
ing every conceivable means
to assure success.
TN THE looking phase of the
Cuban operation, Kennedy
was certainly the victim of
bad intelligence. But intelli
gence is and always has been
two-thirds guesswork, and it
is hard to believe that the
President adequately weighed
the consequences of failure.
This is further borne out by
the fact that the leaping
phase of the operation was,
by past Kennedy standards,
so uncharacteristically tenta
tive. The idea that Castro
could be brought down with
out any risk at all of using
American men or arms re
calls the old rhyme of dubi
ous origin:
Mother, may I go out to
swim?
Yes, my darling daughter;
Hang your clothes on a
hickory limb
And don't go near the
water.
At least part of the ex
planation for the markedly
un-Kennedy-like quality of the
President's role in the first
phase of the Cuban operation
lies with United Nations Am
bassador Adlai Stevenson,
whose voice is listened to
with respect in the Kennedy
Administration. From his own
point of view it was quite
natural that Stevenson should
strongly favor a categorical
promise that American forces
would not be used in Cuba.
The peculiar holier-than-thou
public stance which succeed
ing American delegations to
the U.N. have always thought
it necessary to assume was
difficult to sustain in any
case, in view of the obvious
American, complicity in the
Cuban operation. Without the
Kennedy promise, it would
have been impossible to sustain.
ITENNEDY has spoken of
"the lessons we have
learned" from the tragic Cu
ban episode. One lesson, sure
ly, is that what pleases the
majority of the strangely as
sorted gaggle of more or less
sovereign nations - which now
constitute the U.N. General
Assembly does not necessarily
serve .the' national interest of
tne united States.
Another lesson is summed
up in the old adage, "If you
Strictly Personal
By Sidney J, Harris
(c) General Features Corp,
Harrli
CHESS CAN'T BE A
HOBBY FOR HARRIS
IT'S A HORROR
In the biographical sketch
of myself that our promotion
department sends out to the
groups that
have been
foolish enough
to invite me
to lecture, the
game of chess
is given as
one o f " my
"hobbies."
This is an
error. Chess is
not, and can
never be, a hobby. It is either
a disease or nothing. It is an
obsession, an affliction, an ad
diction. But it is not a hobby.
"Every chess player," an
ironic friend of mine said re
cently, "should have a hob
by." This was a neat epigram.
Because those who are serious
about the game soon become
as single-minded as alcoholics:
wife, family, job and other in
terests all become submerged
in the chessboard.
I have- 'largely given up
playing the game because of
its seductive powers. I used
to urge others to take it up,
but no longer. The peril is
too great. Some serious drink
ers avoid becoming alcoholics;
but no serious chess players
ever avoid becoming chess
nuts. What we need is a secret
organization called "Check
mates Anonymous,"
Not ' only ago, Cleveland
Amory came to Chicago for a
few days of the most strenu
ous activity. His book, "Who
Killed Society? , is high on
the best-seller list; his anthol
ogy, "Vanity Fair," is crowd
ing the leaders. -
During his brief visit here,
Amory was scheduled for sev
eral literary luncheons, re
ceptions, dinners, radio and
TV interviews, and the whole
depressing gamut of modern
publicity. Every hour of his
time was rigidly scheduled.
Yet .owing to the evil
machinations of my publish
er Amory spent five hours
at my house, involved in two
ferocious games of chess with
me. He ignored phone calls
including one piteous . call
strike at a king, you must
strike to kill."
Some day, one way or an
other, the American commit
ment to bring Castro down
will have to be honored. The
commitment- can only be hon
ored if the American govern
ment is willing, if necessary,
to strike to kill, even if that
risks the shedding of Ameri
can blood. '
from his wife awaiting his re
turn at their hotel curses.
threats, promises, and cold
looks from our other guests
who were waiting to go out
for dinner with us.
Like the lush who can't
stop with the conventional
two before a meal, he would
have stayed all night locked
in mortal combat over the
chessboard. We finally had to
load him into the car and
drive him down to the TV sta
tion for his appearance on a
panel show. He cried like a
baby.
I am doing penance in this
piece, for in the past, I have
urged the game of chess upon
strangers to it, and I still have
a nostalgic fondness for it. But
I rarely play it any more; the
game calls for a strong will
and a steady hand. It is not
for weaklings like Amory and
myself.
And it is not a hobby, un
less you look upon opium-
smoking as a 'harmless diver
sion. I thought I had kicked
the habit, until Amory pulled
me back into the pit.
SETS UP CAMP
Katmandu, Nepal- (UPD -Sir
Edmund Hillary has' set up a
base camp for an assault on
27,790-foot Mt. Makalu, re
ports reaching here said today.
Hillary, conqueror of Mt.
Everest, plans to climb the
world's fifth highest mountain
without oxygen.
Drummond Reports
(Walter Lippmann it In Europe. Roscoe Drummond reports from
Washington in his absence.)
CUBA: NEXT PHASE
Washington-President Ken
nedy is facing the hard and
painful dilemma posed by
Castro's Cuban Soviet Social
ist Republic.
We are witnessing the
steady build-up of Soviet mili
tary and political power in the
Western hemisphere which
every United States official
says is intolerable.
Have no doubt about it,
more Soviet power is going
to be put at the disposal of
Castro.
But while we say that a
Soviet military and political
base in the Western hemis
phere is intolerable, we stand
committed to a policy of "non
interference" which was made
for a different world and set
of circumstances than we now
face.
The dilemma is: Do we con
tinue to stand aside and watch
the mounting build-up of
Soviet power in Cuba? Or do
we act alone, even If this ac
tion is unpopular with our
Latin American neighbors
who prefer to close their eyes
to the problem?
. '
BY TREATY and policy we
are bound not to Interfere
in the internal affairs of any
member of the Organization
of American States. This is the
long-standing U.S. and inter
American policy of non-intervention.
But through these same
inter-American treaties we are
committed to resist the spread
Try and Stop Me
: By BENNETT CERF
A BRITISHER, married to a dashing cavalier years young
er than herself, was summoned to America and forced
to leave her roving-eyed husband alone for the first time
since their marriage. Just
before she left, she intro
duced the new butler to
her husband.
"This is Rumbold,' she
said. "Not only will he
look after you while I'm
away but he'll do the
cooking as well."
Sotne nights later the
cavalier invited an old
university chum to din
ner. The food was ghast
ly. "What's gone wrong
around here, old chap?"
Inquired the chum testily.
"You never used to be satisfied with food like this.
"I know, I know," sighed the husband. "But what Kind Of
cooking can you expect fromScotland Yard?" t;
Phyllis Fraaer defines a woman driver as wife who drives
like her huaband and gets blamed for It"
O 1981. by Bennett Corf. Dlatxibuted by Klnr Feature Syndicate-
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of Communism to the West
ern hemisphere and penetra
tion by any non-American
power.
By every objective test Cas
tro is today creating a Soviet
Socialist state in Cuba. It is
tied to the Soviet Union and
Red China,- who have inter
vened in the internal affairs
of every nation they can get
their hands on.
The point I. want to make is
that non-interference in the
"internal affairs" does not
bind us to non-interference in
the spread of Communist dic
tatorship to the Western hem
isphere or in bulding a Soviet
military and political base in
Cuba; they are the external
affairs of every democratic
Western hemisphere country.
A FEW weeks ago I wrote
the followine:
"Have we got to stand im
potent and immobile, para
lyzed by the theory of 'non
intervention' until Castro (and
Khrushchev) have intervened
so widely that It Is too late?
. I suggest that the uncriti
cal acceptance of the theory
of 'non-intervention' covers up
the Cuban problem, keeps us
from facing It clearly."
In his address to the Amer
ican Society of Newspaper
Editors here this past week
President Kennedy seemed to
have concluded that non-inter
vention is no longer workable
because it leaves the Commu
nists free to fix their hold on
Cuba while we remain immo
bilized. He said:
"Should it ever appear that
the inter-American doctrine of
non-interference merely con
ceals or excuses a policy of
non-action if the nations of
this hemisphere should fail to
meet their commitments
against outside Communist
penetration - then I want it
clearly understood that this
government will not hesitate
in meeting its primary obliga
tions, which are to the secur
ity of the United States." '
T AM sure that Mr. Kennedy
means exactly what he
says-that the U.S. will not in
definitely tolerate a Cuban
Soviet Socialist state anchored
in the Communist bloc of Rus
sia and Red China and that
we will act alone if necessary.
Obviously the timing must
be the President's. He will
surely try to make the Ameri
can republics realize that they
cannot counter Soviet Inter
vention by pretending that it
isn't happening. It is. The in
vading Cuban fredom-fighters
have been set back by Soviet
arms in Castro's hands, but
most of them have gone to the
hills, as the President said, to
carry on the struggle of "Cu
ban patriots against Cuban
tyranny."
The struggle must not be
ended until the tyranny is
overthrown,
(c) 1961 New York Herald
Tribune, Inc.
SNAKE CAUSES CRASH
Detroit - (UPD - Donald E.
Jameyfield, 17, had a novel
excuse Monday when police
questioned him on the cause
of an accident involving a
parked car. Jameyfield said
that as he was driving to
A 5
school with a pet garter snake
for biology study the reptile
crawled out of a bottle.
Jameyfield reached for the
snake to put it back, but
it bit him. As a result he took;
his eyes off the road and hit
a parked car. , -
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